Chapter 25

After his theological debate with Bo, Roden waited around with the old adventurer for Errrkkkk and Riakon to finish up their godly conversations. When the evening turned into night they eventually called it and went off to bed.

Roden walked out into Bo’s front yard, conjured up his treehouse, and took a dip in what had become his favorite attribute of his refuge. While soaking in the hot waters of his spa, he felt the familiar tingle of an Advancement.

He expected an Advancement was coming, they had just slayed a dragon for gods sake. There he was once again in his spa with an Advancement to be had so he took the opportunity to go through with it.

When he opened his eyes to blue skies and felt the sand beneath his feet Roden took a deep breath of the clean crisp air and let it slowly. He walked straight to the path that led to the wisps that represented his spells eager to see what he could take, except he found two wisps waiting for him each one representing one of his domains.

“Oh shit!” He said aloud, unable to contain his excitement, despite his fatigue.

He reached out and nearly snatched the one representing his Storm domain. He absorbed the spell and was ecstatic at the information he felt being loaded into his mind. The spell was called Arctic Stream, another cold magic spell. For all intents and purposes, it was a beam of pure unaltered cold magic. By his understanding whatever was caught in that spell would be frozen in place or frozen solid.

Part of him wondered if that domain spell was supposed to be lightning, but Zamira switched it because he complained about lightning being more brutal than fire way back when he converted from Era’s to his mother’s clergy.

At this point in his journey the sheer number of spells and abilities occupying his mind was starting to feel overwhelming. Of course his mind could handle it especially after his Point of Convergence, but he couldn’t think about all of them too much or his mind would become an eddy of magical nonsense.

He shook off the after effects of the last spell and reached out to the spell from his Adventure domain. That domain was always a wildcard of spells and abilities. That time was no different, the spell was not what he expected. It was a powerful protective aura, any magical force attempting to target anything within its aura would be hindered significantly. Roden hoped that extended to dragonbreaths, but knowing Zamira or better yet, knowing Miriana it definitely covered dragonbreaths.

With both spells taken, Roden nearly exited his soul space, but decided to give Zamira a call via prayer to see what she had to say about the current state of affairs. With Errrkkkk and Riakon now knowing of their demi-god status, he was beginning to feel like things were heading more along the lines of the campaign he ran way back when.

Just as in their game, Riakon will without a doubt be even more motivated to complete his divine mandate and Errrkkkk will come with a need to travel to his father’s demiplane. Both of which were going to be huge commitments of time and contain serious risks.

Before Roden could even finish his prayer he heard Zamira’s voice, “so how’d it go?”

He could tell she was excited, and eagerly waiting for his answer.

Roden shrugged, “I don’t know just yet. I think they are all still talking. They have a lot of bullshit to cover.”

Zamira laughed, “you can say that again. I’m sure they are eating it up though.”

“Well yeah, who wouldn’t be excited to hear they are descended from the gods?” He replied with his words full of mirth, the irony of the statement not lost on him.

Zamira rolled her eyes, “to be fair it is a pretty rare thing.”

“Oh really? You know what, I’m intrigued. How exactly are they mortals with parents that are both magical apparitions?”

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Zamira frowned, “damn. I’d hoped you wouldn’t ask that question.”

Roden raised an eyebrow.

“It’s relatively simple actually. They are in a similar boat as you are except they’ve been doing it since they were in their eggs. The original personality never developed and they just became the only personality. Naturally, over time their bodies were changed and they adapted to the magic that permeates their being. To some degree their sparks are what ended up being manipulated to host their ‘souls’.” She said punctuating the last with air quotes.

“Wait wait wait, there is no such thing as a soul?” He said confused and alarmed.

Zamira’s expression showed the question required a complicated answer, but she soldiered on.

“The soul is a term used loosely to help conceptualize some of the unexplainable effects of the magisphere. Much of it can be explained as an exchange of energy or an effect generated by the existence of the magisphere field, but to say there is a quantifiable soul is a no. Sometimes we use soul in place of Spark to alleviate confusion.”

“I don’t know, sounds pretty confusing to me.”

Zamira held up her hands, “hey don’t blame me. That was your people’s doing. They teach it that way. Probably some remnant of past human religions.”

Roden narrowed his eyes, “so when you changed this place and explained it to me as my soul space you were bullshitting?” His question an accusation.

Zamira gave him a small smile, “can you blame a mother for telling a small lie to help ease her child’s troubled mind? You understand enough to make use of it, that is the essence of being a cleric. You have to have faith.” She added the last with a hint of smugness.

“Note to self, next time don’t pick Cleric.”

Zamira stuck her tongue out at him, “says the guy who didn’t pick Wizard because he didn’t want to accidentally die.”

Roden opened his mouth, but closed it, “touché.” He let her have her moment before changing the subject.

“On another note, what should we do now?”

Zamira frowned, “what do you mean?”

“Well we have quite a few things going on here. I know the whole dragon side of things, but what the hell is going on with these gremlins?”

Her frown deepened, “elaborate.”

“While yes there were gremlins on my Mir, they weren’t doing all this conflux business and what the fuck is up with these black rocks?”

“Hmmmm, I guess you boys will just have to figure it out.” She said with a shrug.

“You’ve got to be kidding me?”

“Hey you guys are the adventurers, I’m just a god and single mother. I’ll elect to stay in my lane.”

Roden rolled his eyes, “fine, so off to the next dragon then?” he said clearly defeated.

Zamira nodded, “yep, but you boys better stop by the villa first and pick up your pets. I have had it with those two. They are worse than toddlers”

Roden laughed, “I suppose they’ve got to be pretty big by now. Do you think Errrkkkk and Riakon will want to take them along for the next one?”

“I don’t care what you do with them, but they are not staying at my house alone while you go slay dragons.”

“Fair enough, I bet Grok is getting restless.”

Zamira’s eyes narrowed, “you have no idea.”

*****

Before Roden even opened his eyes he felt the hot water of his spa and relaxed. Conversations with Zamira in his spark space…soul space were always interesting, but made the experience all the more draining. He always felt on guard with her in that space as if she was more of a god there than when he spoke to her over a game of chess at their home.

Roden sat in the steamy waters and pondered his situation. He’d been on Mir for months by that point and his timeline was progressing. Him and the guys had a few more major obstacles to overcome before he could safely leave all of it behind him and go back to his wife.

It was thoughts of his wife that reminded him of the last time he saw her back at the Silver Wind Inn. Sure it was all a drug induced vision, but it was real enough to soothe his aching heart. He thought about her often, but had to keep from dwelling on those memories.

He hopped out of the bath and dug around in his pack until he found the small vial of ground nightstone. He poured out a small pile into the indentation on the back of his hand. He brought it to his nose and breathed in. He repeated the process for the other nostril before capping the vial and wading back into the warm pool.

He hadn’t put too much thought to the idea when he had it, but once he was back in the water he had a sinking suspicion he’d made an error. His want to see his wife had made him forget he was mostly naked in a bath. There was no telling what his mind was about to conjure up.

He waited patiently trying his best to keep his thoughts on his want to just speak with his wife. When he heard her voice, bright as sunshine through a rain cloud.

“Hey Honey, can I get in?”

Roden felt himself grow flush as he knew where his mind was inevitably going to go. But it felt so good to hear her voice he let go of his reservations. His experience with mind altering substances told him that the more he fought it the rougher the ride was going to be, so he let go.

He wasn’t sure what would come from this wakeful dream, but as long as he got to spend some time with his wife, even if it was just a memory or figment of his imagination he would enjoy it.

“Of course you can, baby.” He said scooting over so she could sit next to him.

The euphoria of the drug started to wash over him slightly dulled by the hot water, but that only made it come on all the stronger once he was able to finally feel it. He turned his head to the side and saw her face. The face of his beautiful wife by his side once again. The way her bright green eyes sparkled in the magelights gave him goosebumps. Her long wavy brown hair carried the smell of her sweet perfume.

He wished more than anything to be back home. He longed to be living out that fantasy rather than imagining it, but nonetheless he would enjoy his time with his wife, dream or no dream.